GameSpot • 2021
Gamespot @ Summer Games Fest 2022
Role(s): Lead Designer, Art Director
For now the 3rd year, the ESA chose to not hold a large scale event like in years past for E3. This allowed industry veteran Geoff Keighly to once again take the mantle of the summer months and present a slew of new games and coverage akin to the E3 of old. With that came the need for GameSpot to cover the event and present themselves alongside other industry leaders like IGN, Polygon and others
My Responsibilities:
• GS @SGF logo
• Thumbnail design strategy/execution
• Stream graphics strategy/execution
• Motion graphics art direction
• Promotional design strategy/execution
• Social design strategy/execution
Like with other designs i have made for these summer events, i wanted to lean into the coloring and imagery reminiscent of that time of the year. Instead of the usual sun, palm trees, beach vibes i wanted to go a slightly different route though. I came across some video assets of slow motion ink droplets and it sparked an idea to use them as the visual language for this event.
The end result was something that gave a lush backdrop to our coverage while still feeling vibrant, fresh and appropriate for the summer months. As a goof we also decided to lean into the fact that this summer event had basically replaced E3 as Geoff's event so we had some fun with our own KEIGH 3 branding as a way to give the event a bit more personality as well
the full collection of assets
An event as big as a Summer Game Fest or an E3 like in years past comes with a wide array of needs from a design standpoint. The on-air graphics for the show itself are the highest priority item but there still needs to be a visual representation of GameSpot's coverage on social platforms, on the website itself, and even on staff apparel.
Each of these comes with their own set of challenges but my goal is always to create a wholistic and unified look which I feel was well accomplished in this year's designs and presentation.
gamespots coverage live on twitch
Like with any big on air event like this, its important in my opinion for a brand to represent themselves visually in a way that stands out, is polished and reminds you of why their coverage is amongst the best in the industry. With the overlay graphics for SGF I wanted to keep things as vibrant and colorful as possible like with the initial branding so i repurposed more of the paint drops as background mixed in with my own colored shapes
thumbnail example for sgf
thumbnail example for sgf
Traditionally with thumbnails for events like this, there is a standard image + headline approach but for this version i wanted to lean on the artistic side of things instead while still addressing the needs of our editorial graphics.
The idea was to still maintain a strong primary image mixed with our SGF branding and keep more text off them for the most part. We had some options with text as well still for our editors to utilize if need be as seen above
Gamespot live on twitch
IGN live on twitch
youtube banner design
twitter banner design
As with past events around E3 and the summer, theming the entire brand's social channels with the event is a key piece in establishing a look that feels special and unified. From youtube to twitter to our instagram posts we had a consistent look that followed suit
live stream archive of sgf day 1
the motion graphics intro
Keeping with the organic, flowing nature of the ink drops, i directed my motion designer (Amy Kim) to take whatever liberties she wanted to so we could achieve that. We had very limited time with Amy so a fairly simple and short intro had to prioritized. What we delivered in the end added subtle motion to our elements and a strong minimal reveal of our key graphics
variations of the final shirt
the final printed staff shirt
Since Geoff Keighly has basically taken over this period of time from the ESA and E3's past presence, we thought it would be fun to commemorate this time with a little fun brand integration. Myself and a producer on the video team came up with the idea to use Keigh 3 as our namesake and i went off to create this design after MANY iterations ranging from full on E3 logo ripoffs to more simple approaches